the Strawberry Mystery
by CAnnaliseR
Summary: One day, a mysterious child with orange hair turns up on Shinji's squad's doorstep. The child possesses a strong spiritual pressure and no past. What will happen as the mysterious Strawberry grows up? And what is the mystery behind him?
1. Shinji & the Strawberry

The Day was going on as usual for Captain Hirako Shinji. He had already been repeatedly kicked by Hiyori, saved from that by Love, and stopped Kensei from killing his own leiutenant. Now he was on his way back to his squad's barracks, a characteristically apathetic expression on his face. As he got closer to his barracks, his long bleach blonde hair blowing in the wind, he sensed a confused, but strong spiritual pressure coming from the door. He sped up his pace to see what was wrong and saw something truly unusual. On the steps to his barracks, he saw his squad sitting there trying to talk to a very scared looking kid with bright orange hair that was almost scarlet. The kid was short, probably about 4, but really thin, almost like he'd never been fed enough. His eyes were too big for his face and he looked confused and overwhelmed, wearing black robes, like a shinigami, but with no zanpakutou. He seemed a truly unusual character. As Shinji got closer to the strange scene, his squad scattered, allowing him room to appraoch the strawberry kid. "What happened?" he asked his squad. "We don't know, we got here and he was just sitting on the steps like he didn't know where else to go." " I see", Shinji replied. "Hikari! Go alert Head Captain Yamamoto about this. Hikaru, Kaoru, go get this kid some food and water. Tanaka, go set him up a space in my bunker to sleep." "Yes Sir!" they replied in unison, then set about their tasks. "W-who are you?" the strawberry asked. "W-where am I? How did i get here? Who am I?" He shot questions at Shinji like he was afraid he would be cut off. "I am Captain Hirako Shinji, You are in Seretei in the Soul Society, I don't know, and I was hoping that you could tell me." "S-soul Society?" "Yes, no worries, we will take good care of you here."

Later that night, Kensei approached Shinji about the child. " So what's the story behind the mini strawberry shinigami?" "I don't know, he has no memories of who he is, where he came from, or how he got here. On top of all that, he was wearing black shinigami robes, and he had bright orange hair, almost red, like a strawberry." "Interesting... and I hear that he has a strong spiritual pressure." "yea, it rivals that of a 3rd seat." "Hmm...Something tells me this kid is gonna be real interesting." "...yea", said Shinji thoughtfully.

"The child is likely here as a result of a konso. He probably had srong spiritual pressure when he was alive, so as a soul, he ended up here instead of the rukon district." Captain Urahara enlightened us."Since Captain Shinji is the one whose squad the child showed up in, he shall be the one to look after him. I expect monthly reports on the "Strawberry"'s progress. Anyone is welcome to help him out with the "Strawberry". This is my final word." That's what Head Captain Yamamoto said about the child in the Captain's Meeting, leaving Shinji to find a way to deal. Shinji recalled this memory as he was walking back to his barracks to get some sleep. Strawberry was asleep on the small bed next to Shinji's. He looked so peaceful asleep. When awake, the child was mysteriously quiet. "Hey Shinji?" The child surprised him, he thought he'd been asleep. " What's my name?" he asked. "I don't know your real name, but how about I come up with one for you, other than Strawberry." The child looked excited at the suggestion, so Shinji replied, " I'll call you Ichigo."


	2. The Captains' Meeting

1 Year After Previous Chapter:

"Now, Shinji, please give your report on the boy", said Head Captain Yamamoto. "Yes Sir", Shinji began," I have reason to believe that we shoud devise a special training program for the boy." "oh?", Captain Yamamoto, as well as several other captains, looked surprised at the sugestion. "Yes, the boy shows significant knowledge in weapons, poisons, martial arts, even music", Shinji went on. "You put any random knife or gun in front of him and he can tell you everything about it..." "Everything?" Questioned Captain Kenpachi, "Everything, right down to where the creator got the idea for it, and if you show him any Zanpakutou, he can tell you its name, capabilities, and possessor." This left the Captains truly awestruck, some of them couldn't even believe what they were hearing. A child, no older than five or six with the abilities to do all this, and a spiritual pressure like the one he's got? Unbelievable. "That's not all, we sent him to training, to see what he coud do, and he didn't even get a scratch or a bruise. His attack was worked down to an art, it was flawless. Even without a Zanpakutou, although I have no doubt that he will achieve that as he grows up." "What made his attack so flawless?" Captain Yoruichi asked, "He analyzes every move his opponent makes, it's like he can calculate thier attack before they even do it. Then he targets the weak spots with a precision and strength that I've never seen before", he turned to Head Captain Yamamoto," This kid is special, he has a gift really and truly. If possible, I'd like to find out more about him, I'm hoping that the 12th Division will help out with that, and I'd like to run him throught more training, to see what he's really capable of." "Wait, wait, wait, whoa. What are you saying? That this kid is older than he looks, that he's some sort of superhuman?" Of all the Captains, it figured that Love would be the one to speak up. The other Captains' expressions varied from wonder to disbelief to thoughtfulness, it was sort of hard to believe. "Alright, Research and Development is to search for the boys past, Shinji, keep up the reports. In the mean time, all sqauds will put him through thier training and send reports in about that." ordered Head Captain Yamamoto.

I know that the characters are off and that this is nothing like the real plot, but I promise it's supposed to be that way, and it is not going to turn out as a Jason Bourne wannabe story. Just, please, stick with it for a while. Thanks!

3bubbasgirl


	3. The Training

The Gotei 13 set to training Ichigo right away. The 1st Captain to get a hold of him was Captain Yoruichi, she brought him to her facility, with most of the other squads following, curious to see how good a fighter the strange young boy was. The squads training center was out in the open with a few bushes and trees here and there. Since they were the stealth force, they trained like this to get a better feel of working secretly within nature. Ichigo didn't look surprised, impressed...yes, but not surprised, he'd already been told the specialties of each squad by Shinji, Kensei, Love and Hachi. Yoruichi silently left Ichigo in the exact middle of the field and then disappeared, all of the stander-by were watching with bated breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

What actually happened next, happened so fast that no one could track it, they saw a flash of something come out from behind a bush, then a blur of action that no one seemed to be able to see. They followed the action as closely as they could, moving slowly towards the center of the field.

What was happening inside the Blur Yoruichi POV

I came at him via flash step from the closest bush, trying to give him the advantage. When I got to him, though, it seemed that our roles had reversed, now I needed the moved so fast, I had to concentrate all my energy on following his ,yet, he tracked every move before I made it, counterattacked every one of my attacks flawlessly. I came at him with shunpo, and _he caught my leg_! He caught it, stopping me dead in my tracks. _What the hell is he?_

Normal POV

The smoke surrounding the blur cleared to reveal a Captain Yoruichi with her leg being held captive by an apathetic looking Ichigo. She was in mid air, appearently having tried to do a shunpo or something of that nature. Ichigo let go and she flipped and landed on her feet gracefully, like a cat. She looked stunned, devastated that she lost to a child and puzzled as to how this happened, as was everyone else. Ichigo, however, just bowed to her and walked away without a word, leaving a shocked and puzzled crowd in his wake.

Meanwhile, in 12th Squad

Lieutenant Kurotsuchi looked at the screen and laced his fingers together. A slow, cruel smile lit his face and a dark happiness creeped into his eyes. "So this is who Strawberry is... this is going to be one our most exciting experiments yet" he laughed a cold, calculating laugh, his eyes never leaving the computer as he thought, "I can't wait to see this..."


	4. Sidestory! The Tour

"Can you believe that Ichigo kid?" Mashiro heard two shinigami talking about him one day. She ducked into a corner to hear what they were saying. "I know, I thought that all that stuff was just rumor, but I _saw_ it. He was on par with Captain Yoruichi, can you believe it? he caught her right in mid- shunpo! It was incredible!" "Whoa, and how old is he? Like, five? six, maybe? There's gotta be more to his past than we know. Maybe if we talk to him-" " No, I heard from Lieutenant Aizen that he only talks to Captain Shinji, and even he can't get much out of the kid." "Really? that's not surprising, I guess...he seems so apathetic, i wonder what his past is and why he's the way he is..." Mashiro decided that that was enough eavesdropping. Was all that really true? Could he be everything everyone said? One thing was for sure, she had to meet this kid, so she headed towards Squad 5's barracks to find Shinji.

When she got there, evidently Hiyori had beat her to the pitch. "Why are you so apathetic? You're being awfully rude, you know?" He remained unresponsive, though his eyes filled a wariness. Smart. " Hey! Answer me, dumbass!" she yelled at him, as he turned to walk away, she took off a shoe and chucked it at him. He stopped dead in his tracks and with a flick of his hand, the shoe went flying back at Hiyori. She barely caught it and then stood awestruck as he turned to her and said, "It's rude to throw things at people you don't know", and then walked away. I knew Hiyori wouldn't stay in that shocked state all day, so I went after him while I had the chance. As I caught up to him I said, " Hey! it's Ichigo, right? I'm Mashiro, that girl back there with the hot temper was Hiyori." He stopped in front of me and looked in my eyes as he replied," Nice to meet you, Mashiro." "Hey, you haven't been all around Seretei yet, right? How about I show you around?" "Sure, sounds like fun."

He'd already been in all the squads barracks, so she took him through the maze that was Seretei and then through the rest of Soul Society. They had fun, laughing and playing with other kids, eating candy and just being themselves. It was close to midnight when they finished the tour and Mashiro said," We should get back, Shinji's probably worried." He nodded and she motioned for him to get on her back. He complied and then she flash stepped him into Seretei and to Squad 5's barracks, by which time, he had fallen into a peaceful doze.

She landed as gently as she could on the steps of the squad as Shinji came out and said "Oh, good, I thought he'd run away for a moment. Then Kensei told me that you-" "SHhhhhhhhh" she said, " he's asleep" She nodded towards the sleeping strawberry and Shinji lead her to his quarters. He opened the door to reveal a room she had never seen. It looked very Shinji like, plain yet somehow interesting. He pointed to a small bed a few feet away from his that had a night stand next to it and a medium size wardrobe a few feet away, both were painted pitch black and scarlet red. On the table was a single book, a lamp, a glass of water and a piece of candy. The bedspread was black with a red dragon on it, clearly the work of someone from squad 4. The pillow was red, so his hair blended in well. The wardrobe was simple black, same as the nightstand. The lamp was white and so was the book, she couldn't see the title, though. Shinji Unmade the bed enough for Mashiro to slip Ichigo in and then they both pulled the covers over him and silently watched him sleep for a moment before Mashiro whispered," I've gotta get going, Kensei might get worried", Shinji nodded and she left, lingering at the door for a moment. _That is so cute, they could be siblings_ she thought, and then headed off into the night.


	5. The Zanpakutou

Six years later found an 11 year old Ichigo, sitting on the steps of Squad 7s barracks, looking at the sky and daydreaming about nothing in particular. He still had eyes that were much too big for his head, bright orange hair, and a tall, thin figure. Though he ate just as much as everyone else, he always looked as though he' d hardly eaten anything at all. He had opened up a bit more though, he was much more mellow now than he was before, if you spoke to him, he would actually carry on a conversation and he was almost always smiling about something. He seemed to radiate an aura of happiness and relaxation wherever he went. He now slept in whichever squads barracks he happened to fall asleep in, they didn't mind, everyone liked Ichigo, and they were all practically family anyway. He still didn't have a zanpakutou, but he didn't mind, he just had to work with what he had, not that he ever had a reason to use it, but still. Everyone had taught him to use kido and he'd mananged to master all of them in about three years. They had also taught him about Soul Society, the world of the living, and a bunch of other stuff. He was particularly fascinated by hollows, which people had tried to explain, but had told him were better to learn about by experience than words.

He was happy with the way he was living, however, recently, he'd been having strange dreams. In the dreams, he was surrounded by a darkness that somehow had a light to it, it seemed to be glowing. He saw a man with long black hair and sunglasses that was dressed in a black cloak that seemed to move almost as if it were underwater or a shadow. Ichigo never saw his skin or face, except the mouth, which kept trying to tell him something, a name, Ichigo deduced. He couldn't quite understand why it was so crucial that he learn the name, but it kept nagging at him, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't make it out. His brow creased as he thought about this and continued to stare at the sky, as though looking for answers in it. "You shouldn't think so hard, you might break you brain."

Ichigo jumped a little and said with a laugh, "oh, Love, you scared me" "Sorry bout' that, anyway, whatcha thinkin' so hard about?" Ichigo paused for a moment, trying to find the right words, "I keep hearing strange things in my dreams" he said. "What kind of strange things?" Love replied. "I dunno, it's like I can hear a voice, but I can't make out what it's saying." "What else is in these dreams?"Again, Ichigo paused as he recalled them and then tried to figure out how to describe it. "It's like...a light darkness, a darkness that somehow has a light to it, is glowing." Love made a "Hmmmm" noise as Ichigo once again began to contemplate it.

It was about two hours later that Ichigo was wandering around Seretei, going nowhere in particular that Hiyori and Mashiro ran past him. _what is going on?_He wondered. "Come on!" said Hiyori as she ran past him. "Don't you wanna see a hollow?" She asked, he nodded and ran after them, staying a few feet behind. They went to the outskirts of seretei and that is where Ichigo saw the strangest thing he had ever seen.

The thing was huge, at least as big as two squads' barracks put together. It had big red eyes and ten legs. _so this is what a hollow is_ he thought. Hiyori was the first to act. She drew her zanpakutou and went to slice it's head, but it disappeared and she landed on her feet, still in position. The thing reappeared a few yards away and Mashiro went after it, targeting it's head, but instead getting the same as Hiyori did. The thing appeared in the center of the field and thrashed it's tail around towards Hiyori, who tried to block it, but was sent flying into a tree. "Hiyori!" Ichigo made to go after her, but was stopped by the thing approaching him and sticking out it's tongue, as though about to lick him, he thought it absurd for only a moment before realizing that there were spikes on it. He looked over the lizard-like thing before deducing that it's weak spot was it's head.

Mashiro made to go for it while it was distracted, but the thing tracked her and dealt her the same hand as Hiyori. With both of the _actaul_ shinigami out of the game, Ichi was left two options, run or fight. He was taught never to run if he knew he could handle it. He hopped into the tree nearest him and jusst sat there, waiting for a good oppurtunity at it's head. just then, a harried looking Kensei and Shinji ran into the field and got a look at the unconcious Hiyori and Mashiro. Kensei looked up and saw Ichigo in a tree, unscathed with a look of determination in his eyes, which turned to relief when he spotted Kensei and Shinji. _The kid's not stupid, he knows he can't do anything without a zanpakutou._ Kensei thought. Shinji went at it first, aiming for it's head but getting left behind as it zoomed away. Kensei went in it's direction, but barely cut it's tail before meeting the same fate. Shinji managed to track it and cut off it's tail completely, but that didn't stop it, the tail grew back instantaneously, and Kensei used this moment of distraction to go for it's head again, but again met the same fate."Damn it!" he shouted. The creature showed up silently behind the two Captains. "watch out, behind y-" They had just turned around to attack when the things tail glowed green and it hit them full force and sent them clear across the field, knocking them unconcious instantly.

Now, Ichigo was usually a mellow fellow, but when you hurt the people he considers family, well, anyone would take it personally, but it straight up pissed Ichigo off. He jumped from the tree and threw a rock at the hollow. It turned toward him but he didn't back down even as fear shot through his veins. The thing hissed at Ichigo and made to go for him, but Ichi was too fast. He flash stepped away, momentarily confusing the thing. It made for him again and this time, Ichi wasn't fast enough. It caught him in it's teeth and dangled him back and forth as Love and Ukitake entered the field. It turned towards them, Ichigo still in it's clutches. Their eyes went wide as they caught sight of the situation at hand. They jumped into action, but the thing got them anyway.

"Leave. Them. Alone." Ichigo ground out as he struggled to get down. He felt a rush of something he couldn't quite identify and then heard the same voice say the name he'd been trying so hard to riddle out. The thing dropped him and he landed on his feet, in his hand there was a handle and a quickly materializing blade. The blade was steel on one side and black with a red dragon on the other. The blade was bigger than he was and very lethal-looking. He turned towards the thing, still ever composed and said "Zangetsu" in a deadly voice.


	6. The Victory

Ukitake and Love watched with bated breath as the thing dropped Ichigo, who landed gracefully on his feet as something began to form in his hand. It started with a handle wrapped in what looked like gauze, then formed quickly into a lethal point, growing larger than Ichigo. The blade was gorgeous, steel on one side and black on the other with a blood red dragon running through it. The spiritual pressure became more controlled as Ichigo turned to the thing and said in a deadly voice, "Zangetsu." His eyes had turned bright red, almost matching his hair. They had gotten so used to seeing him mellow and cheerful that it was hard to imagine the same kid looking so deadly and serious.

Ichigo went at the things head, his movements as fluid and graceful as a shadow or water. Ichigo caught up to it and sliced right through its head as Kensei showed up through the trees, appearently having regained conciousness. His expression went from relief at seeing Ukitake and Love to shock as he saw ichigo and how easily he had defeated the troublesome hollow.

Ichigo slung the blade onto his back and it wrapped itself in the gauze-like stuff as Ichigo went over to Kensei."Are you alright? Was Shinji alright?" Kensei seemed to snap out of shock pretty fast as he replied,"I'm fine and I'm sure he is too, why don't you and Ukitake go find him while Love and I take care of Hiyori and Mashiro." Ichi nodded and led Ukitake to the spot where he saw Shinji land.

"What _was_ that?" Kensei asked Love. "_That_ was pretty freakin' awesome", Love responded.


End file.
